


Under the Table

by Ambitious_Rubbish



Series: Kinktober 2020 [5]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/F, Kinktober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 07:21:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambitious_Rubbish/pseuds/Ambitious_Rubbish
Summary: People love heroes.And that’s part of the problem.The Alliance considers Jane Shepard a hero. So does her crew. So does a good chunk of the galaxy. But really, she’d rather take a pass on the whole hero business.Unfortunately, she’s got orders.And those orders involve attending a dinner in her honor.The only good news? It won’t be boring. Not if a certain asari has anything to say about it.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Liara T'Soni
Series: Kinktober 2020 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1949869
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for: https://masseffectkink.dreamwidth.org/5149.html?thread=21991453#cmt21991453
> 
> But I think it also fits nicely for: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23466580
> 
> Day 5: "Public Sex" and "Teasing"

Dress blues. Rubber chicken. A bunch of admirals droning on endlessly about something or other that really didn't interest her at all.

Jane Shepard had been to thousands of these events over the course of her career. She hated them. But she was a good soldier, and she sat through them without complaint (all right, without _much_ complaint) like any good soldier would. It was her job, and besides, it would be especially gauche for her to act up at a celebratory dinner being held in her honor.

But they really shouldn't have bothered – really, _really_ shouldn't have bothered.

Sure, she'd saved the galaxy from a horde of rampaging Geth, from the predations of a rogue Spectre and the return of some eldritch techno-horror from the fringes of the known universe, but if they really wanted to thank her, a nice box of chocolates and maybe some store credit at Nos Astra Sporting Goods would've been nice. They really didn't need to do all this.

She listened to Admiral Hackett up at the podium, extolling her virtues, and while she admired the man, hearing him go on and on about how she was a model soldier and an example to billions was just...

_Are my cheeks red? I feel like they're on fire or something._

There was one bright spot in the whole evening. At least her crew had turned out to give her moral support. A little ways down the table from her was Tali, shoving a bit of flavored nutrient paste around the inside of a cup with a “specialized intake implement.”

_“Tali, that's a straw.”_

_“It's been carefully calibrated to interface with the input systems on my suit.”_

_“Still a straw.”_

_“Uncouth barbarian.”_

Next to her was Williams who was busy accosting the waiter and demanding that her steak be sent back to the kitchen. “I can't eat this, it's medium-rare. Who eats a steak _medium-rare?_ I want this thing still mooing when I put it in my mouth. Look, do I have to shoot the cow myself? Come on, work with me here. The krogan agrees with me, right, Wrex?”

“I heard something about shooting things.”

“Cows.”

“Don't know what those are, but I'm up for shooting them.”

“Great. Find us a cow, we'll shoot it, show this idiot how to grill a real steak.”

Garrus, meanwhile, was simply watching the proceedings with an amused smile on his face and trying not to choke on his drink.

That left Liara.

Ah, Liara.

“Are you doing all right, Jane?”

“You wouldn't happen to have a laser-cutter on you, would you?”

The asari blinked in confusion. “Er... no?”

“I may need it to hack through this chicken.”

“I... actually found it quite flavorful.”

“Clearly asari have no taste buds.”

Liara shot her a wry smirk and ignored the jibe. “So you didn't answer my question.”

“Eh, I just hate these kinds of things. Everyone's making such a big deal about... well... everything.”

“It is a big deal.”

“Not to me, it's not.”

Those blue-tinted lips quirked into a small, affectionate smile, and Liara's hand came to rest on Jane's thigh, giving it a gentle pat. “Well, of course it's not to you. Because you're humble and honest and hard-working: all qualities that I love very much about you. And all qualities that these people gathered here this evening respect about you. Which is why they're all here to show you how proud they... we... are of you, even if you're too modest to accept it.”

Jane blushed bright crimson. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stoppit.”

But she didn't. “And if I don't?”

“I don't know. Something. Vaguely threatening.”

Liara chuckled softly, hiding it demurely behind her napkin. “Consider me intimidated. I just think you need to... what's that phrase you humans use? 'Loosen up a little.'”

“Trust me, I'm working on it. I've already had three glasses of this cheap wine. I'm starting to get a headache.”

“Not what I meant. I had another idea.”


	2. Chapter 2

“Like wh-” Shepard was lucky she had such good reflexes and such poise, or she probably would've spilled the contents of her wineglass all over herself as she lifted it to her lips to take a drink. Just as she was finishing her sentence, the fingers planted on her thigh began to drift inwards.

“What are you doing?” she hissed. “Someone might-”

“See?” Liara muttered under her breath, putting up a wide poster-grin for anyone who might be looking on. “Nonsense. This tablecloth goes all the way to the floor. No one other than you will notice if I do... this.” She punctuated the sentence by flipping the button of Jane's uniform trousers and deftly slipping her fingers inside. It was an utterly brazen act, made all the more exciting because of its skill and audacity.

Jane gasped. “You're crazy.”

“Your influence, I'm sure.”

And now Liara's fingers were tracing the front panel of her underwear, making her agonize over what she'd chosen to wear for the evening. She'd gone with plain cotton: normal, standard-issue, perfectly regulation undergarments, (colored ship-metal gray, for God's sake,) but now, with those fingers being excruciatingly naughty down below, she found herself wishing she'd opted instead for something a little more risque. Something lacy... red, perhaps... and... easier to access.

Not that Liara seemed particularly interested in doing any “accessing” at this point. What she did seem interested in doing was _teasing,_ and doing plenty of it. Jane could feel herself growing slick with arousal, just the thought of those slender blue fingers down there, caressing her while Liara herself sipped delicately from her wineglass and made small talk with the other dinner guests. It was so unlike the normally bashful xenoarchaeologist who, it seemed, could barely carry on a conversation about the weather without turning it into something wholly inappropriate for the dinner table like, say, salarian mating habits, the ever-rising price of refined palladium and how many volus _did_ it take to change a light bulb, anyway?

Shepard really was a bad influence on her. And yes, there was truly something to that old adage about how being bad felt so _good,_ if the way Jane's eyes were slowly rolling into the back of her head was any indication. “Liara... Liara, _stop._ ” Her voice was tinged with frantic desperation. This was just so wrong – getting turned on like she'd never been turned on before, and in front of a room full of dignitaries and admirals and not to mention the rest of her squad, no less. Sure, they couldn't see what was going on – all the naughty bits were covered up by a generous helping of tablecloth, but she wasn't sure if that made it worse or better, because she was a hundred percent certain her face had “Scandal! My alien paramour is discreetly pleasuring me with her hand just out of your direct line of sight!” plastered all over it. Her cheeks were bright red, the flush was seeping down towards her collarbone. She could feel the sweat beading down her back: a line of ice against her otherwise fiery skin.

“Stop? Now why would I go and do a silly thing like that? I'm just getting started.”

And with that ponderous statement, the sanctity of Jane's briefs was violated as well.

To her credit, the Commander did a remarkable job of maintaining her composure as Liara's fingers went spelunking. Though it seemed that the asari's intent was to tease Shepard to the point of madness, she kept away from making any moves that would be too overt – at least at first. She kept her initial maneuvers subtle: a few light strokes here, a whisper of a caress there. There was little Jane could do but sit in helpless frustration as Liara dictated the pace of operations – sit and watch as a ghost of a smile formed at the corners of the asari's mouth, only to be temporarily hidden as she stabbed a piece of some vegetable or other with her fork and almost daintily lifted it to her lips.


	3. Chapter 3

Chew. Swallow. The simple motions were captivating in a way that they normally wouldn't be were she not so rapt an audience. And through it all, those fingers-

Teasing her until she thought she would scream or spear her own eye out with her butter knife... something, anything because those faint touches were driving her _wild._

“You. Are so. Mean,” she managed to grumble out, the words barely making it in an intelligible form past her grit teeth.

And for a moment, the facade slipped. There was just the faintest hint of a blush on Liara's cheeks as she turned and gave Jane an almost sheepish smile. “I know.”

“You _know?!_ Well, what are you going to do about it?”

And just like that, the mask was back in place. “This.”

Liara was a talented biotic. All asari had some latent potential, but not all chose to undergo the extensive training it took to develop that potential fully. This one had. It had been years, decades even, of hard work, learning the extremely fine control necessary to safely manipulate mass effect fields both large and small. It was a fine test of any biotic's skill to see just how precise one could be.

A lot of people never managed pinpoint, fingertip-scale control.

She had.

Utilizing it in a situation such as this one certainly wasn't the most practical of applications, but fun? It was definitely fun.

To Jane, it felt like... like a buzzing. So small, at first, that she didn't even notice it at first. But then it started growing. More and more intense. Like one of those “personal massagers” Williams had gotten her as a gag gift. And it was coming from... from-

Oh, that just wasn't _fair._

She made her concerns known. “That's not fair.”

Nobody was watching them at that moment. In a crowded room, full of dozens, maybe even a couple of hundred people, they were completely alone, just the two of them. Liara laughed and risked a quick kiss on the cheek. “Shhh. Just enjoy it.”

She didn't have a lot of choice. The vibrations were getting stronger, sending spiky little jags of _YUM_ surging all the way down to her toes and up her spine where they burst into pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars and green clovers somewhere behind her eyeballs. She felt like she was living in a commercial for breakfast cereal.

She took in a deep, shuddering breath and set her jaw, completely flabbergasted that this was actually happening, but determined to see this through to the (not so) bitter end, since apparently Liara certainly was.

And that was when the asari found her clit.

Well, perhaps “found” wasn't an appropriate description. Xenobiology might not have been her area of expertise, but Dr. Liara T'Soni still had plenty enough experience with a human clitoris. She knew where it was located, how to recognize it, and more significantly, what to do with it.

She made her move...

And Commander Jane Shepard of the Earth Systems Alliance Space Vessel Normandy promptly began to choke on her meal.

Garrus was on his feet in an instant. “I think she's choking! Williams, give me a hand, here, I think she needs that Heinrich Maneuver!”

“ _Heimlich Maneuver,_ and she's fine,” Williams scoffed, not even bothering to rise from her chair. “Just slap her on the back a few times.”

Liara reached over and, with remarkable grace and aplomb, patted the Commander gently on the back which did, indeed, seem to ease her distress. The coughing fit passed after a few moments as Liara rubbed between her shoulder blades. After all, Shepard had nearly been buried under a metric ton of wreckage and debris from exploding Reaper; she'd emerged just fine. It would be patently ridiculous for her to be undone by something as mundane as a hunk of overcooked Chicken Piccatta.

“Shepard? Shepard, you all right?” David Anderson had a voice that sounded like gravel being spit out of an extruder, but somehow he managed to pack a wealth of concern into it.

“I'm fine, I just...”

“She probably just needs a little fresh air. I'll go with her.”


	4. Chapter 4

Jane was just about to protest that _No, she didn't want to run off with the sex-crazed asari who was probably going to do even more unspeakable things to her the instant they were out of earshot, and also, she really didn't want to be standing up right now because she was pretty sure that her trousers were still undone,_ when Liara practically hauled her to her feet. Shepard looked down at herself and found that blessedly, her wardrobe had been restored to its pre-orgasmic condition. For someone whose line of work involved the laborious research and inventory of millennia-old artifacts, the woman worked _fast._ There wasn't even time for her to get a word out before she was hustled out of the banquet hall and into the lobby.

“If you try to drag me off to the ladies' room so you can have your way with me,” Shepard plopped herself down on one of the benches by the glittering decorative fountain in the middle of the room. “I'm going to scream for an adult.”

Liara, now seemingly back to her “normal” self merely laughed and took a seat next to her – at a safe distance – and with her hands unthreateningly in her lap. “No. Unless you'd like me to.”

“Oh, God, yes. But then we'd get caught, I'd get court-martialed, probably dishonorably discharged, and end up working as some hanar's bodyguard or something.”

“Let's... try and avoid that, shall we?”

“Oh, please, yes, let's?” Shepard chuckled, shook her head, and let out a ragged breath, letting the last of the tension that had been building up in her over the last few minutes finally bleed away. “Liara, what got into you?”

“I don't know,” the asari smiled coquettishly.

“Don't give me that.”

“All right. Well, how about the fact that you're always doing things like that to me?”

“Not as _publicly._ ”

“No, that's true. But...” she shrugged, and Shepard couldn't help but laugh.

“So this was all payback?”

“Maybe, maybe not, but you enjoyed yourself, and so did I, and nobody was any the wiser. So what's it matter?”

“You play a really cagey game, Liara T'Soni.”

She was about to reply to that when Ashley came trotting up to them, Garrus and Tali right behind her. “Hey. Captain Anderson sent us out here to check on you, Skipper. You doing ok?”

Garrus clicked his mandibles. “You had a few folks in there a little worried, Shepard. Not me, of course. I figured it'd take a little more than some reheated Alliance-rations passed off as a fancy dinner to take you out.”

“I'm ok, guys, thanks for checking up on me.”

It was amazing how expressive Tali's face could be – she wore a helmet over it. “So no ill effects from Liara fingering you in front of all those people?”

The quarian's comment set off another round of choking noises, even if there wasn't anything for Shepard to actually choke on this time. She sputtered and wheezed. “How- I- um- a little help, Liara?”

“I am not going to confirm or deny,” she said with a chuckle as she folded her arms over her chest.

Garrus snorted. “Right, so, guilty.”

“I swear, if you two try to pull a stunt like that again in front of me, I'm going to murder the both of you.” Williams quipped, rolling her eyes.

Tali nodded. “I may help her.”


End file.
